Sommerville-Software-Engineering-10ed

28 Chapter 1 ■ Introduction
1. Software reuse has become the dominant approach for constructing web-based
systems. When building these systems, you think about how you can assemble
them from preexisting software components and systems, often bundled together
in a framework.
2. It is now generally recognized that it is impractical to specify all the requirements
for such systems in advance. Web-based systems are always developed
and delivered incrementally.
3. Software may be implemented using service-oriented software engineering,
where the software components are stand-alone web services. I discuss this
approach to software engineering in Chapter 18.
4. Interface development technology such as AJAX (Holdener 2008) and HTML5
(Freeman 2011) have emerged that support the creation of rich interfaces within
a web browser.
The fundamental ideas of software engineering, discussed in the previous section,
apply to web-based software, as they do to other types of software. Web-based systems
are getting larger and larger, so software engineering techniques that deal with
scale and complexity are relevant for these systems.
1.2 Software engineering ethics
Like other engineering disciplines, software engineering is carried out within a
social and legal framework that limits the freedom of people working in that area. As
a software engineer, you must accept that your job involves wider responsibilities
than simply the application of technical skills. You must also behave in an ethical
and morally responsible way if you are to be respected as a professional engineer.
It goes without saying that you should uphold normal standards of honesty and
integrity. You should not use your skills and abilities to behave in a dishonest way or
in a way that will bring disrepute to the software engineering profession. However,
there are areas where standards of acceptable behavior are not bound by laws but by
the more tenuous notion of professional responsibility. Some of these are:
1. Confidentiality You should normally respect the confidentiality of your employers
or clients regardless of whether or not a formal confidentiality agreement
has been signed.
2. Competence You should not misrepresent your level of competence. You should
not knowingly accept work that is outside your competence.
3. Intellectual property rights You should be aware of local laws governing the
use of intellectual property such as patents and copyright. You should be careful
to ensure that the intellectual property of employers and clients is protected.